"This is a first important step toward our exoneration and toward countering the accusation of right-wing extremism," the party said on X. The post added that the BfV has effectively "withdrawn" the party's classification as "confirmed right-wing extremist."

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DW Fact check: False The classification "confirmed right-wing extremist" was not withdrawn. The AfD, which increased its number of seats to 152 (out of 630) in the last parliamentary election in February, applied to the court to issue an injunction order if the BfV were to reject the "standstill" order. Both instruments are legal tools that can be used by plaintiffs to ensure that an authority must pause measures that the plaintiff considers unlawful. "The Federal Office has now preempted the issuance of such an injunction by issuing the 'standstill' order, which means that the Federal Office will refrain from designating the AfD as a 'confirmed right-wing extremist' party and will not treat it as such until the proceedings have been concluded," said Markus Ogorek, director of the Institute for Public Law and Administrative Theory at Cologne University. Ogorek's view coincides with comments by Michael Ott, presiding judge and press spokesman at the Administrative Court of Cologne: "The Federal Office considers its classification to be correct, it has only suspended the designation to give the court time to carry out a proper review," he said. This would give the responsible judges time to work through the over 1,000-page report, he said. If the BfV had refused to suspend its decision, the court could have issued an injunction. This would have also frozen the previous decision to prevent the plaintiff from suffering "a potentially irreversible disadvantage," as Ogorek explained.

Reviewed by Deutsche Welle Fact check ↗ · May 10, 2025